Bioenvironmental engineer speaks out on officer corps diversity, increases AF recruiting for Puerto Rico miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Opinion Editor Adam Van Brimmer blogs on local topics of interest most weekday mornings in the “Savannah’s Town Square” Facebook group. The following is an excerpt from one of those posts. Join the group at Facebook.com by searching Savannah s Town Square.
Driving across the marsh from the islands to Thunderbolt over the weekend, I caught sight of a military transport plane lumbering toward the airport for a landing.
Whenever I see these C-130s in the air now, I immediately think of the horrific 2018 crash along Ga. 21. The plane had just taken off on its final flight, heading from Savannah to a aircraft boneyard out west, when it suffered a mechanical failure. The pilot couldn t coax the aircraft around to attempt an emergency landing back at the airport and instead lined up with the highway.
On May 2, 2018, a C-130 plane from the Puerto Rican Air National Guard dropped from the sky and crashed into the middle of Ga. 21 in Port Wentworth. Pieces of the aircraft were scattered across the lanes and gray smoke could be seen billowing from miles away.
Elizabeth Galarza, a Savannah resident, was on her way to Bluffton on the Talmadge Bridge when she saw the smoke. She started a Facebook Live, asking people what had happened and warned others about driving in the area. About 20 minutes later, the news started to come in.
“I remember it clearly,” said Galarza. “It was devastating.”
183rd Wing Commander Chosen as Director of Logistics for Air Guard
The Commander of the 183rd Wing, Col. Donald DK Carpenter, who rose through the enlisted ranks and then through the officer ranks as a problem solver, will now put his skills to work at the national level as the new Director of Logistics, Engineering, and Force Protection for the Air National Guard.
With this selection, Carpenter will be promoted to brigadier general.
“DK has been put in positions throughout his career where problems needed to be solved or processes needed to be improved and he has always left those jobs with the organization in better shape than it was when he started,” said Maj. Gen. Rich Neely, the Adjutant General of Illinois and Commander of the Illinois National Guard. “This is a well-deserved promotion that will put his skills to work at the national level.”
Flight hours plunged during COVID, but aircraft mishap rates ticked up Stephen Losey
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Two Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons, assigned to the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, fly in formation with two Royal Saudi Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles during an exercise over Southwest Asia Dec. 15. The Air Force recorded fewer major mishaps in 2020 but a steep decline in flight hours during the pandemic meant the mishap rate actually ticked up last year. (Staff Sgt. Taylor Harrison/Air Force) The Air Force saw the fewest of the three most serious classes of mishaps involving manned aircraft in at least a decade in fiscal 2020.